Oct

The Broadway Bomb Returns (no mom, not a real bomb)

In case you haven’t noticed, there are hordes of youths on skateboarders on Broadway, screaming, with helicopters overhead and cops standing and yelling. Bwog’s hangover is none too pleased with this, but we admire their spunk. This is the annual Broadway Bomb, an illegal boarding race down Broadway. Last year, the state filed an injunction against this DANGEROUS and HORRIFIC event, mostly because they don’t have a permit. The ride starts at noon, send your best pictures to us. Party on you badasses. Party on Garth.

The event: a few hundred callow teenagers milling around with skateboards on a beautiful morning in Riverside Park, with no sign of evil intentions beyond running stop lights on Broadway. The NYPD response: a paramilitary operation involving dozens of officers, several on horseback, countless police vehicles of all types, 116th Street and Riverside Drive blocked with steel barriers and orange mesh, huge lighted signs blaring "THIS EVENT IS UNLAWFUL," and even an NYPD helicopter looming overhead. It's no wonder the police are disliked in this town.

I bet they applied for a permit and were rejected. The organizer of the 2012 event said then that he planned to start the application process for 2013 immediately. The Catch-22 is that you can be arrested for not having a permit, but permits are frequently denied for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Don't forget, NYC: Peaceable assembly is a constitutional right.